What Causes Firefox To Slowdown

Well, here are the things I observed that causes Firefox to slow down significantly:

• The more tabs or windows you open, the slower Firefox gets as it increases significantly more RAM consumption and CPU usage.
• Viewing web pages with Adobe Flash and streaming videos on many tabs simultaneously will cause Firefox to slow down heavily until sometimes it becomes unresponsive. If you are in Windows Vista and your memory is low, the more you are to experience this kind of slowdown symptom. Adobe Flash player is a monster plugin and it causes Firefox web browser to consume more RAM and CPU. In fact, I have experienced on my system that the videos streamed through this player pauses every two seconds and it sucks.
• If you have installed and enabled a lot of Firefox extensions, there is a big chance that Firefox 3 will eat a lot of RAM and CPU, causing the web browser to slow down as a result. While there are lots of nice and useful Firefox extensions out there that adds more exciting to your web browsing, I highly recommend that you only enable the extensions you really need if you want speed.
• Same would be the case if you have a lot of plug-ins installed and enabled. However, unlike Firefox extensions, plug-ins are usually invoked on certain pages who use it. So, the slowdown chance is not that great. By the way, Adobe Flash player, the one that is invoked when you watch YouTube and similar sites, is a Mozilla Firefox plug-in.
• If you have a slow computer system. If your laptop or personal computer is slow on system RAM and your processor has slower clock speed, you will definitely notice more how Firefox will slowdown each day especially if you experience the above-mentioned causes. I am on a decent laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a SATA hard disk drive and 3 gigabytes of RAM, so it’s a bit mysterious as to why Firefox 3 still slows down.

How To Make Firefox 3 Faster

Now, for sure these procedures will make Firefox 3 feel faster again:

• Defragment your hard disk drive.
• Clear Firefox cache and all your system temporarily files.
• Disable all your Firefox extensions.
• Get a faster computer with higher clock speeds and generous RAM supply.
• Don’t visit sites that uses plugins that causes Firefox to slowdown (well, don’t follow this if you like to watch YouTube a lot).

Now, if those things don’t work for you, maybe it’s time to consider other newer web browsers that runs simultaneous threads at the same time: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and Google Chrome are the best alternatives.

If you experience slowdown on Mozilla Firefox 3 web browser too, drop your comments below and let’s tell the world that this browser gets worse each day.

Update: By the way today, Mozilla released Firefox version 3.0.2, let’s see what it can do.

As far as I can remember, Philaahzophy.com is not new to me. I think I’ve seen and mentioned this site on this blog way before when I had a grand review about THC’s lifetime Rudolf hosting plan last February (which is now unavailable — unfortunately). He was still positive to THC that time — far different from his views now.

On Philaahzophy’s latest post as I checked it entitled "Top Hosting Center Can’t Keep Own Website Online!," I believe Aahz missed to read something from his H-Sphere control panel. I am not sure if he is on Rudolf hosting plan or Speedy (I didn’t have interest to research) but I know he is one of THC’s customers and claimed that he used to be a "big fan" of the web host. His post was a bomb to THC and considering that THC announced the event prior to their downtime, this blogger once again shooted blanks.

While it is true that the official homepage of Top Hosting Center was down as of this writing, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve read yesterday from the company’s H-Sphere control panel news section that they are going to change their IP address as they’ve always done in the past months (this is something Aahz missed to read). I’m not sure how many hours had it been in downtime status but I have asked some friends abroad and they told me that they can fully access the website (which makes me believe that DNS information propagation is complete on some places). I don’t know if other THC users noticed the advisory but for sure it is conspicuous enough to get noticed. Since I’m in the Philippines and THC servers are in North America, I guess I will have to wait for the site to go up. It is a good thing that this blog or any customer sites (and hosting functionality) was not affected by their downtime otherwise it would be real shitty.  

As far as I know based on my working Cisco networking knowledge, changing an IP address does not take effect immediately and unfortunately domains undergoing IP changes will experience downtime. Changes that undergoes downtime include IP updates, IP transition from shared to dedicated IPs and vice versa, and name server changes.

To THC: Aahz May Be Right, But Not Completely Right

I do not say that Aahz is completely wrong. He was just shooting blanks on some ways; he may be right, but well, not completely right on his claims since I highly believe he missed the advisory. Plus, he could be on a shared hosting — and you can’t expect a dedicated server quality on a shared hosting plan!

Now this is for you THC: like what he said on his first post,  I agree that there have been quite a few times that THC had problems with their hosting services. Although they are fast in responding to support and delivering solutions to problems, complaints like from Aahz’s is a sign that THC needs to be consistent and make their impatient customers feel what a good host is. It doesn’t feel good to defend something that doesn’t deserve to be defended. Fortunately, THC isn’t as worse as Aahz described it based on my experience. He was a bit too extreme. Perhaps he needs to get a dedicated server. Believe me, you will never find a host that doesn’t experience downtimes especially on shared hosting.

Bottomline

If Top Hosting Center wasn’t good enough, as it never became a perfect web host, I would have flown to other web hosting companies. I’ve got lots of sponsorship offers for this blog from other web hosts yet I’ve denied them all because I like the way THC handles its hosting services. Plus, I don’t need to worry about a thing because they have backups accessible. An anonymous hacker tried to devastate this blog earlier this month and THC was very, very quick to restore my database. I’m sure other customers can have similar experience as THC’s support is just a matter of clicks away. In my case, I write to them via email but I can also use their live chat for basic issues and trouble ticket on my H-Sphere control panel as well.

This company does web hosting a very different way. It offers a wide range of Quality Web Hosting plans priced from $2.99 per to $11.99 per month. The main shared plans are Blogan (Blog hosting), Content (CMS hosting), Social Web (Social networking plan), Web Mall (E-Commerce hosting service) and Multi Site (Multi Domain hosting service for up to 30 small websites). Besides them you can use between other 24 hosting service plans. Each of them features different software application – from WordPress and b2Evolution Hosting plans, through MODx, Drupal and Joomla hosting services, to Social and SSL hosting plans.

Host Color also offers VPS Hosting plans powered by Virtuozzo, a leading virtualization solution. VPS plans cost from $19.95 (192 MB RAM, 10 GB HDD, 50 GB data transfer) to $69.95 for very powerful Virtual Private Server with 1024 MB RAM, 50 GG disc space and 350 GB data transfer. Anyone who needs to use fully Managed VPS can purchase it for low cost monthly flat fee of $49.95.

The company also offers Dedicated Hosting starts at $99 per month. These commercial information however is far less important than a few other things about Host Color. Besides my current host which is the Top Hosting Center, Host Color possess the following qualities:

1. This is the only hosting company I’ve seen to show their senior management to customers. You can see who runs Host color on its "Team" page.
2. This is the only web host that express its business principles and says "NO" to overselling on its website (Check their "About Us" and "Philosophy" sections)
3. This is the web hosting company that has implemented the probably the best customer service approach I’ve seen – to build an Online customer center (Host Color named it "pZone") to enable customers to manage their accounts and to communicate with its customer care specialists. This approach to customer service means that the web host id focused not just to sell, but to provide a high level customer care.

There are a few other things that make Host Color very open hosting company. It updates its new section and blog very often and launches promotional campaigns.

It’s been just days since Microsoft released the second preview version of its flagship web browser that shocked me in disbelief, turning my negative expectations on Internet Explorer down. Now, we heard that Google just released its own browser dubbed as Chrome. For Google and its followers, it sounds like an exciting, business tool; for other browser developers, it’s less than a threat; for web developers like me, while it performs good, it’s also another piece of crap.

Why Release A New Browser?

Google’s engineers have succeeded to deliver their own web browser developed for two years, but why did Google choose to develop its own browser, considering that the current browsers are already excellent in many ways? Trust me if you set aside your beliefs, you would find that today’s current browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera) are already more than enough.

So why develop Chrome? Well, Google could say they mind us for this — but actually, it’s for their business. Google wants more so it needs ways to expand…and to have its own web browser is the best way. With it, Google can effortlessly tap more audience and infuse its web services to expand its market.

Google Chrome Is A “Virgin”

What are Microsoft and Mozilla have to say about Google Chrome? Well, neither of them find Chrome as a great threat for the time being. Both have expressed that Google is new to the browser market and it can’t shook their user base (yet) just like that. While Google Chrome in perception is aimed to flirt users using Internet Explorer, I definitely feel that Mozilla Firefox will suffer the greatest consequence should Google decide to halt support to Mozilla’s browser. Google Search has been the default search engine on Mozilla Firefox browser and because of that it makes Google one of their biggest source of funds. But that is not about to happen yet, Google Chrome is still like a virgin — people may find its speed hot, still it is undeniably tight-featured and inexperienced. By features alone, Google Chrome cannot stand against Firefox’s rich extensions library.

Google Wants Dominance, Empire Expansion

Like any other business, Google wants market dominance and with this goal in mind it already facing tough and tested industry giants such as Microsoft, Yahoo, among others. I particularly noticed Google battling Microsoft products even more in all possible, ethical ways. It seems to me that Google is becoming more and more like Microsoft except that it has the advantage of having the Web, which all technologies are shifting to, as its domain. Last year, we saw Google booming and acquiring heaps of other IT companies for its growing power. I have made a prediction that Google will fall this year, but with the advent of Google’s new browser that could change depending on how the people would be compelled to use it. Google could use its popular search engine as its weapon. However, it is good to note that Google Talk, Google’s own Internet messaging client, have failed to snatch the user base of Yahoo Messenger and other IMs. Google can’t have it all.

Should You Use Chrome?

Chrome by functionality and usability is pretty excellent, despite its freshness to the browser market and the fact that it’s just a preview version. Although I was awed by a faster Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 just released few weeks ago, I was even more enthralled to know that Chrome surpassed any available browsers on this planet in terms of JavaScript execution speed — and that means Chrome got muscles with it, considering that the trends of today’s web applications are shifting towards Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). Chrome has been built above several opensource code engines that have blessed Firefox and Safari’s superb browsing performance. 

Personally, I liked the simplicity and minimalistic of Chrome’s interface. Its tabs look intuitive and futuristic. However, since it’s just beta (note: it’s version 0.2) and even if Google could still boost it a lot, the current one is still half-baked. It doesn’t have most features of today’s popular browsers have — and that sucks.

Another thing is that as a web developer, Google Chrome is again another browser platform. It’s another piece of crap where all my web pages will have to be tested to ensure compatibility. If Google plans to create its own web standards in web development and other browsers will not support it, that would definitely a pain in the butt for me and all other web developers.’

Try Google Chrome now then come back and let me know how you find it.

Audacity’s layout looks similar as other commercial sound editors except it looks less advanced. However, looks can be deceiving for sure as it features a lot of functionality that I would always rejoice for being free. Depending on your system’s resources, you can have as many tracks in mono or stereo during editing. The control is fast and smooth and there are fewer buttons for simplicity.

Sound Effects

The audio effects available in Audacity are quite decent and professional. They are very useful when you have some serious audio projects and you can’t find any commercial editors around. As of this writing, I am using Audacity 1.3.5 Beta which has the following built-in effects: Amplify, AutoDuck, BassBoost,  Change Pitch, Change Speed, Change Tempo, Click Removal, Compressor, Echo, Equalization, Fade In, Fade Out, Invert, Leveller, Noise Removal, Normalize,  Nyquist Prompt, Phaser, Repair, Repeat, Reverse, Truncate Silence, and Wahwah. Additionally, it also includes Cross Fade In, Cross Fade Out, Delay, GVerb,  Hard Limiter, High Pass Filter, Low Pass Filter and SC4. Now, that’s a lot!

Extensibility

I was thinking that the in-built effects are more than enough. However, it is interesting to know that you can still extend Audacity’s functionality by installing plug-ins.

On Audacity’s official website, you can download separately the LAPSPA installer that contains over 90 plug-ins for Audacity. If you also want to export your edited audio to MP3 format, you will have to download the LAME MP3 encoder. Additionally, you can configure Audacity to accept VST plug-ins by installing the VST Enabler. These are all great for Audacity and they are free!

International Recognitions

Audacity has been hailed by PC World as one of the 100 Best Products of 2008, a recognition that validates its great usability, features, performance and technology innovation. In addition, Audacity sound editor was also included in PC Magazine’s Best Free Software last February, so you’ve got no reasons not to try it.

Download and try Audacity here now. It’s freakin’ awesome!

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 deserves the spotlight.

One day after Microsoft released IE 8 Beta 2, and after scratching the features, stability and reliability of the new Internet Explorer for 24 hours, it is clear that the Microsoft IE8 Beta 2 is an eye-opener for Microsoft and Internet Explorer pessimists like me. I’m pretty sure hardcore Firefox fans would not (or just hesitant) to believe this, but give Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 a try and you would believe how great this browser would be when its full version will be released — especially to web developers and Internet-savvy persons like me.

Considering the rapid and continuous shift of computing, social and business paradigms toward the Internet, Microsoft’s flagship web browser is surprisingly abreast and aware with this. Mozilla Firefox have been long hailed for its speed, openness, adherence to web standards and increased functionality — but now, Microsoft proves us it can do the same — at least finally. For sure, there are features that they somewhat copied from other web browsers, but they are worth copying to make our Web life easier, faster and exciting.

Hard-core Firefox Fans And Microsoft Haters: Listen

Avid Firefox fans like me for years can admit that the terms “Internet Explorer” and “Microsoft” are annoyances. And Microsoft cannot blame us with that: many people were disappointed with the release of Windows Vista, and the home browser that it comes with, the Internet Explorer 7, is slow and problematic. I agree that there were problems that came with the original Vista release, but I already have forgiven Microsoft with that after they released Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which encouraged me to love Vista even more and recommend to my friends that it’s now worth upgrading from Windows XP.

I was truly doubtful that IE 8 Beta 2 would satisfy my browsing needs. But after I installed it for fun, it seemed to be beyond my expectations. For a product that comes from Microsoft, that’s “record-breaking” (LOL) and great. If you are a long-time Microsoft products hater, try playing with the new web browser and you’ll see what serious market research can do.

Less Headaches To Web Developers

Web developers completely agree with me that coding compatibility is a pain in the butt especially when dealing with Internet Explorer browsers. I’ve been patronizing Firefox for its adherence to web standards and I used it as my main browser. Why? Because the sites I developed there looked and worked the same with most of other web browsers in the market such as Safari and Opera — and Internet Explorer is not always like that. I would add so many “trys and catches” in our code just for IE, especially with JavaScript or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). However, that assumption is about to change with Internet Explorer 8 as they finally emphasized support on web standards and interoperability. So, it means less headaches for me and that is great.

I highly encourage that you discover and try Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 by downloading and trying it. It rocked a Microsoft hard-core pessimist like me. It will rock you too. Set aside your hatred and you’ll see that Microsoft’s efforts in giving us an excellent browser to experience and work with the Web is worthy of recognition for the time being.

Learn more by visiting Microsoft’s blog post related with Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 release.

…it came with new features, new speed, new look — and it made me forget Firefox for the moment.

“Wow!” With Emphasis 

The last time I patronized Internet Explorer was when I was still using its version 5 and 6 web browser — and it was because I haven’t heard of Firefox yet. When Firefox came into the scene after that, bringing better security, faster speed and tabbed browsing, that made my Internet Explorer 7 unused (except for web development purposes where I make sure that my web pages would work well with both browsers). Internet Explorer 7 was the worst IE I’ve ever encountered and it came pre-installed with my Windows Vista. It’s slow and annoying — far behind the performance of recently released Mozilla Firefox 3, and even its version 2.

Out of curiosity amplified by the rumors I read from web development and web hosting forums, and due to the nature of my work as a web developer, I downloaded and installed Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 two months ago. I wasn’t quite impressed to it actually as it performs similarly like Internet Explorer 7 — and it was meant to be that way. Microsoft purposively released IE8 Beta 1 for web developers who want to work on their coding and make them compatible with the full version release of IE8. As one of the developers who took advantage of IE8 Beta 1, I was happy to learn that the forthcoming Internet Explorer 8 is more compliant with web standards.

When I read from Yahoo’s tech news that Internet Explorer Beta 2 is already out, I didn’t hesitate to download and install it from its homepage. It took me two reboots on my Windows Vista: first after I uninstalled Internet Explorer Beta 1 and the second one is after I installed Internet Explorer Beta 2. It took quite a portion of my time but I was patient enough for it. When I return to my desktop, I immediately ran Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and surprise: it was able to awe me with emphasis (as in, “WOW!!!”) with its new look, its amazingly newfound rendering speed, and intelligent, whopping features. Looks like Microsoft has finally able to please me once again after all my complaints with its previous web browser versions.

IE8 Beta 2 Got The Muscles To Punch Firefox 3 Out Of The Ring

I love IE8 Beta 2′s new, clean looking tabs and completely revamped Autocomplete and Search features. Now, tab switching and web browsing is fast (even faster at times compared to Firefox 3, in fact). I was asking myself “Where did this browser got this speed? And why it wasn’t like this before?” Looks like this time, Microsoft really seriously developed this web browser to prevent any competitor from dethroning IE. And since they finally listened to people’s complaints (especially web developers), they made a very good move.

IE8 Beta 2 presents a couple of new features. A new feature called “InPrivate” lets you browse the Web without leaving any trace (no history, cookies, etc) — which is good for security and anonymous browsing (you might want to call this “porn mode” — lol ). Well, I will not try to convince you to trust Microsoft, but I think I finally do trust them because their new features just work.

IE 8 Beta 2 also features “Accelerator” which lets us discover new services; “Web Slices” which lets us slice a portion of a website so we can have up-to-date information even though we are not actually visiting that website; “SmartScreen Filter” for additional protection against deceptive and malicious websites and the Compatibility View which displays an image on the web browser’s address bar if the web page is meant for older browsers. This feature, and IE 8 Beta 2′s integrated Developer Tools really made my heart rejoice as a web developer. I’ve been looking such features before and I only found them in Firefox add-on feature. Now, Microsoft is dragging me back to their base.

…it was already able to please a long-time Microsoft Internet Explorer pessimist like me

Despite the fact that Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is still beta, and it could still offer a lot more on its full release, it was already able to please a long-time Microsoft Internet Explorer pessimist like me. Firefox had already snatched my heart for a long time, but now with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, I’m reassessing myself because I believe it now deserves love too, even from you.

Experience for yourself the latest preview version of Internet Explorer 8, and believe me it is one of the most satisfying Microsoft products I have ever known. Two thumbs up with pride. (Wow! I can’t believe I said that!)

It has been more than a year now since I first enjoyed SmartBro Internet service and I must say that the last 12 months have been excellent with few problems with connectivity. SmartBro’s customer care hotline have been top notch. I would only need to dial *1888 on my mobile phone, press call button, and then a technical representative would assist me shortly to troubleshoot my Internet connection. If they are unable to solve the problem, the customer care representative then forwards a request to dispatch contractors to my place within three days and check my network hardware and settings.

Things Have Changed

Beyond my first year things have significantly changed, I’ve experienced a series of Internet blackout in the last three months that have put my job and future at risk. For three months, shortly after every downtime, I’ve been calling a lot Smart’s customer care and I always hear them saying the “base station tower where I am connected to is having technical problems” and that “the connection will come back within 24 hours.”

For a couple of times, I was not even able to reach them for help and I just got a pre-recorded voice message telling me that “all lines are busy.” The most annoying of all, is that I cannot predict the exact time the connectivity failure will strike. And it happened to me a lot when I was discussing important work-related things with my business partner and my boss who is based in Canada when we were near deadlines to finish something — and then out of the blue, SmartBro Internet went dead and I got disconnected for at least one or two hours. It made me feel sometimes that Smart doesn’t deserve the Php 999 (  $24 USD ) flat fee I pay per month for their SmartBro wireless broadband running at 384 kbps. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of ISP options in our area, so I think I will just need to endure their service and hope that I would gain back its quality like before.

Customer Service

There are quite a number of ways to reach ImHosted.com’s customer support and it starts on their website. Strategically, the support link can be found at the top of their website which can be easily seen and accessed by anyone. Like what most web hosting companies boast, ImHosted.com also offers 24×7 customer support — that’s good to hear for sure but it doesn’t surprise me anymore. Interestingly, their support center is quite appealing. They put everything what the customers would potentially need all at the same place which is really good: from online control panel documentation, ticketing support, login links, and even comprehensive tutorials. One thing that is a bit unusual to me is their live chat since they just use ICQ messaging client for it. No ICQ? No live chat support. Personally, I prefer a web based live chat that is one click away than using any messaging client that requires software installation. Overall, ImHosted.com support department is excellent. If you are an ICQ user, you’ll love it even more. I’ve been reading reviews from their existing customers that their support is first rate — so having a different style of live chat is therefore not a let down.

Hosting Plans

As of this writing, ImHosted.com’s front page presents their mega web hosting deal. They offer affordable web hosting services for only $6.95 USD per month comprising of the following key hosting benefits:

• 2, 500 GB web space (huge)
• 20,000 GB monthly bandwidth
• host unlimited number of domain names
• free 1 lifetime domain name
• CPanel control panel
• unlimited database, email and FTP
• SSH/Telnet support

It is best that you check the complete features of their competitive shared hosting plan on this page to find learn more. It looks good for me.

ImHosted.com also offers reseller hosting which is perfect for anyone who wants to start an  online hosting business. My current hosting company doesn’t have this feature yet.

Reputation

I’ve done some research about ImHosted.com and I found some good reviews from their existing customers on various web hosting review websites and web hosting forums. I learned that their stellar reputation was brought about by their consistent excellence of their web hosting services (good uptime, effective support and well-priced hosting). This positive reputation is a good sign that a web hosting company is reliable. So, if you are planning to get a hosting, ImHosted.com is worth a try with confidence.

Verdict

Looks like ImHosted.com a reputable web hosting company with affordable web hosting plan for everyone. For only $6.95 a month, you could start a blog that you can monetize or run good websites. Their hosting plan offers not just web hosting service, but an opportunity for anyone who wants to start making money online through online ventures.

Without third party codec support, Windows Media Player 11 (and even Windows Media Center) that comes in the default installation of Windows Vista operating system is truly lame. And even though it deserves merits for its sleek design, it still lags behind even to opensource media players. I once hailed Media Player Classic to be the best media player in Windows Vista, but since I  pity much Windows’ media player home court, I sought a way to beef it up functionality-speaking –  and here’s how.

By default, Windows Media Player 11 cannot play many kinds of media files which is truly disappointing. But there’s a way to solve this: you only need to download third-party video and audio codecs or update your existing ones. Codecs, which in full term means “compressor-decompressor,” is a way video and audio files are shrunk to relatively small file sizes with a little loss to none of its video and sound quality.

So, let’s get started and upgrade your Windows Media Player 11. Among all video codecs I’ve found on the Internet, the best one that suits WMP 11 especially when you are on Windows Vista is the latest versions of Vista Codec Packages by Shark007. It is one of the most active video codec packages to give you the best media playback functionality. As of this writing, the latest version is 4.7.2 for 32-bit Windows Vista (15.3 MB) and version 1.5.1 for 64-bit (5.88 MB). These versions are far better than before so download the right one and install it.

After installation, try playing some video files that didn’t play before and you’ll be surprised to watch them with glory on Windows Media Player and Media Center. Finally, other than media file playback, there are still lots of cool features hidden inside Vista Codec Package (to let you know). I will write about them in my future posts so stand by.